On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:03:39 -0800, Jaap Spies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Do you follow the discussions on the Maxima mailing list? Thanks. I don't follow that list so thanks for the forward. That said, I think it's perfectly fine if Maxima is aimed at researchers and not beginning students. That's just what Maxima is. The criticism below that this means major packages in Maxima are "a bug" is unfair. That said, a significant goal of SAGE is to make some part of the functionality of maxima (or giac?) very easily usable by beginning students. That maxima maybe doesn't realistically have this as a goal is just an argument for the value of our approach. > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [Maxima] suboptimal versus non sense > Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:12:10 +0000 (UTC) > From: miguel Lopez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > R. Dodiet said: > > Miguel, I agree that some aspects of the Maxima language are suboptimal. > > > Should I use a political correct language to hide the reality, > a beautiful dress to hide the ugliness? > > Well, i'm sure that any of you can conceptually understand the difference > between > > 1.- Due to scarse staff we can't make same changes in the code. > 2.- The concepts are correct. > 3.- Bla, Bla. > > > My studentes in four months must learn the following concepts: > > Vector Calculus: Line integral, double and triple integral, multiple > integrals, > change of variables, surface integral, Stokes theorem, Divergence Theorem, > Green Theorem, Laplace Transform and ED (first order: homogeneous, exact, > integral factors, Bernoulli, linear) and Linear (indeterminate coefficients, > via Laplace, and operator method (invert a polynomial in the operator D). > > Should I suggest a computer program that should generate about a googol of > questions and erros? > > I'm nobody boss, not i'm going to fire somebody. But i want to say clearly > that there is a need for a clear concept of what is a bug > > > For a student list and matrices are a bug. > Vector Calculus package is a bug. > > Why? Is suboptimal? No, clearly not. > > Any of you can define curl, or div, or anything like that in four lines. > > The problem is that there is not quality control > > A good engineer would say, here students play 80 % or more, let's do > a program for students, a good one, one that talk like them not like an > expert mathematician. > > > > Don't do it for me, i prefer you hate me, do it for the students > population: > > The say: Please eliminate thoses ideas that no one can foresee. > > > > > By the way, thinks a lot to everybody, education shine here. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Maxima mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
